In 1820, slave owner Jasper Pickett found himself heavily in debt, and was forced to turn over two slaves, a skilled mechanic named Abraham, valued at $1,200 and Nimrod, a slave valued at about $800, to the sheriff of Currituck County. When the sheriff bid the slaves off to Thomas Sanderson for a total of $125 as security on the debt, Sanderson allowed Pickett to keep the slaves in his possession. But the slaves were levied upon again, confiscated by the sheriff of Bertie County, and put up for sale. They eventually ended up in the hands of John B. Blount of Edenton. According to Picket, Blount got the slave for less than $100 each by convincing the sheriff to let him bid them off in order to save them for Pickett. Blount, however, has not lived up to his promise; he has kept the slaves in his possession and hired them out to his own benefit. Pickett argues that Abraham alone would hire out for $30 per month.
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Repository: North Carolina Department of Archives and History, Raleigh, North Carolina
